Topic: Pedee

Pedee Tribe: Meaning unknown, but Speck (1935) suggests from Catawba pi’ri, “something good,” or pi’here, “smart,” “expert,” “capable.” Discover your family's story. Enter a grandparent's name to get started. choose a state: Any AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY INTL Start Now Pedee Connections. No words of the language have survived but there is every reason to suppose that it was a dialect of the Siouan linguistic family. Pedee Location. On Great Pee Dee River, particularly its middle course. Pedee Village. No village names are known apart from the tribal name, which was sometimes applied to specific settlements. Pedee History. The Pedee are first mentioned by the colonists of South Carolina. In 1716 a place in or near their country called Sankey (perhaps Socatee) was suggested as the site for a trading post but the proposition to establish one there was given up owing to the weakness of the Pedee tribe, who were thought to be unable to protect it. In 1744, the Pedee, along with Natchez Indians, killed some Catawba and were in consequence driven from their lands into the White settlements. Soon...

These small tribes lived on the lower Pedee and its tributaries in South Carolina and the contiguous border of North Carolina. Nothing is known of their language and very little can now be learned of their former daily life or their religious system of belief, as they were never prominent in history. For the “Hooks” and “Backhooks” there is only the authority of Lawson, who mentions them as enemies of the Santee, living in the earliest part of the eighteenth century about the mouth of Winyaw River, i. e., Winyah bay, South Carolina 1Lawson, John. The history of Carolina, containing the exact description and natural history of that country, etc., p. 45. (Reprint from the London edition of 1714.) Raleigh, 1860. . The names have a suspicious appearance, as though badly corrupted from their proper forms. Rivers, perhaps from original information, makes them Hooks and Back Hooks, which, if correct, may indicate that the former lived nearer the coast and the others back of them. The Waccamaw lived on the river of that name, which enters the Pedee from the north almost at its mouth. The Winyaw lived on the western side of the Pedee near its mouth. Black river, a lower tributary of the Pedee from the west, was formerly called Wenee River, probably another form of the same word, and Winyah bay still preserves their memory. The...

Pedee Indians. A small tribe, probably Siouan, formerly living on the middle course of Pedee River, South Carolina Nothing is known of its language and little of its history. On a war map of 1715 its village is placed on the east bank, considerably below that of the Cheraw, about the present Cheraw, South Carolina. In 1744 they with others killed several Catawba, which led to their being driven from their lands into the white settlements. Two years later they and the Sara are named as tribes which had long been incorporated with the Catawba. In 1751 they were mentioned at the Albany conference as one of the small tribes living among the white people in South Carolina, against whom the Iroquois were asked not to war. While most of the Pedee joined the Catawba, there were some who remained among the white settlements as late as 1755. For Further Study The following articles and manuscripts will shed additional light on the Pedee as both an ethnological study, and as a people. See Mooney, Siouan Tribes of the East,...